TikTok fired back at the U.S. government’s ban with a lawsuit.
Today, it was reported that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has sued the federal government to constitutionally block the new law from going into effect.
TikTok’s court filing says, “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide.” It calls the ban “unconstitutional” under the First Amendment.
The law requires ByteDance to divest TikTok within 270 days or face a ban in the U.S. App Store. It passed as part of a foreign aid package sending 95 billion dollars to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
The lawsuit argues that selling TikTok isn’t “commercially, technologically, or legally feasible,” saying that the law will result in a shutdown. It details how TikTok and its competitors are global in nature, how it’s impossible to transfer the social media platform’s “millions of lines” of code to a new owner, and that the Chinese app will not sell its recommendation algorithm.
Congress sees TikTok as posing a national security threat, arguing that its ties to the Chinese government put American user data at risk. TikTok denies that it shares American user data with the Chinese government. Ultimately, the lawsuit will require Congress to back up its claims.
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